Question

A 1000-kg car moving at 20 m/s slams into a building and comes to a halt. Consider questions a and b below. Which question can be answered using the given information and which one cannot be answered? Explain. A. What impulse acts on the car? B. What is the force of impact on the car?

Answer 1

A can be answered while B cannot be answered due to missing the duration of impact

Step-by-step explanation:

a. The impulse act on the car equal to the change in momentum, which is going from 20m/s to rest. Before the impact, the car has a momentum of 1000 * 20 = 20000 kgm/s. After the impact, the car has 0 momentum (halted). So the impulse that acts on the car here is 20000 kgm/s

b. The force of impact is impulse over unit of time, or duration of impact. In our case we don't have information for time, so this question cannot be answered.